Halloween Horror Nights 2024 (USH) - Employee Preview

[DTH]

Talked to a few other “regular people” who went last night and they all said, without knowing each other or even knowing much about my own fandom, that this year is terrible and the least scary year and probably the worst year they’ve been pretty much ever (kinda split on some who have been going for years and others who started going probably 2019 at the earliest). From what I gathered, they thought scare actors did fine, it’s just the IPs aren’t interesting or scary enough.

While this was obviously a dress rehearsal, my concern lies with that I don’t think I’ve ever heard this amount of negativity even before the event. Mixed, sure, even trending toward negative, but never just outright negative.

My hope is (and obviously this is sure to be the case) that a lot of elements weren’t working or are still to come. But even with it all “on,” will it reach the mark we were all hoping for? I was never high on this year to begin with, so not that big of a loss for me, but with KSF trending back upward and Fright Fest having “the largest haunt in SoCal,” it might be time to start worrying about how to go all out next year for HHN…

 

[Michael S]

Small anecdote, but I have a…dumb thought with Monsters.

Does it seem by chance, that it was made for the purpose of not a soundstage? Like as if the house wasn’t going to do things at the scale of what SS12 can actually do.

I hate saying it, but I tried to warn everyone to lower expectations about that. SS12 is just another slab to build a house on, to them. Could’ve been in 22, or on a piece of asphalt like T Pad or H Lot.

 

[chris.g]

Talked to a few other “regular people” who went last night and they all said, without knowing each other or even knowing much about my own fandom, that this year is terrible and the least scary year and probably the worst year they’ve been pretty much ever (kinda split on some who have been going for years and others who started going probably 2019 at the earliest). From what I gathered, they thought scare actors did fine, it’s just the IPs aren’t interesting or scary enough.

While this was obviously a dress rehearsal, my concern lies with that I don’t think I’ve ever heard this amount of negativity even before the event. Mixed, sure, even trending toward negative, but never just outright negative.

My hope is (and obviously this is sure to be the case) that a lot of elements weren’t working or are still to come. But even with it all “on,” will it reach the mark we were all hoping for? I was never high on this year to begin with, so not that big of a loss for me, but with KSF trending back upward and Fright Fest having “the largest haunt in SoCal,” it might be time to start worrying about how to go all out next year for HHN…

There was a LOT of buzz around this last night, my host and I asked around and we were told there was "reason" that this year was a bit quiet as far as IPs and originals went. A lot of implication was made that there are some heavy hitters being discussed for next year already, if not already secured.

 

[Ridesandstuff]

My gripe about the monkey situation in Dead Exposure was accurate. It just doesn't fit the scenario. Waste of nearly 3 scenes.

I agree with @Clive about it being more like Havoc: Zombiegeddon (minus the collars). Despite those nitpicks, it's a solid "original" with great unexpected effects.

I think it should've been all monkeys tbh

 

[bdubsCEO]

I think it should've been all monkeys tbh

We deserve a nuclear Curious George house next year

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

I think it should've been all monkeys tbh

Zoombies 2K25 train lets go

 

[Lucky Planet]

There was a LOT of buzz around this last night, my host and I asked around and we were told there was "reason" that this year was a bit quiet as far as IPs and originals went. A lot of implication was made that there are some heavy hitters being discussed for next year already, if not already secured.

i hope that orlando also gets better properties than this year

 

[DTH]

There was a LOT of buzz around this last night, my host and I asked around and we were told there was "reason" that this year was a bit quiet as far as IPs and originals went. A lot of implication was made that there are some heavy hitters being discussed for next year already, if not already secured.

I think there needs to be a considerable effort to really go big next year because I feel like critical response has been declining post-2020, despite record attendance. While I've always heard negative response from those who go and do 2-3 mazes, the ones doing all the mazes and still being bummed out, and hardcore fans not going crazy for it, is telling. With KSF having arguably its best year last year and FF trying to better their efforts, it won't take much for the pendulum to swing the other way. I was really thinking this was the year that HHN would go big to kinda reclaim that SoCal spot, but considering reviews, that doesn't seem the case. I don't know, next year might be too late...

Not trying to make it all doom and gloom before the event even opens, regardless, I am still very excited to attend this year! Terror Tram seems promising, and all my most anticipated seem great with TCM being a welcome addition and Dark Exposure being a possible dark horse. With that in mind, 2-3 "good mazes" while the rest are mediocre seems about on average to me to the quality HHN has been putting out post-2020. I think the hope was we'd get back to 2016 level at this point and there's starting to become a sinking feeling that we simply just won't get there.

 

[Jake S]

With KSF having arguably its best year last year and FF trying to better their efforts, it won't take much for the pendulum to swing the other way.

Are people actually arguing that Knott's Scary Farm had its best year last year? And Fright Fest also hasn't opened — and when it does, it appears it won't have all the mazes it's advertising on the tin. Again, none of these events have officially opened yet!

 

[foodstampsFTW]

I think there needs to be a considerable effort to really go big next year because I feel like critical response has been declining post-2020, despite record attendance. While I've always heard negative response from those who go and do 2-3 mazes, the ones doing all the mazes and still being bummed out, and hardcore fans not going crazy for it, is telling. With KSF having arguably its best year last year and FF trying to better their efforts, it won't take much for the pendulum to swing the other way. I was really thinking this was the year that HHN would go big to kinda reclaim that SoCal spot, but considering reviews, that doesn't seem the case. I don't know, next year might be too late...

Not trying to make it all doom and gloom before the event even opens, regardless, I am still very excited to attend this year! Terror Tram seems promising, and all my most anticipated seem great with TCM being a welcome addition and Dark Exposure being a possible dark horse. With that in mind, 2-3 "good mazes" while the rest are mediocre seems about on average to me to the quality HHN has been putting out post-2020. I think the hope was we'd get back to 2016 level at this point and there's starting to become a sinking feeling that we simply just won't get there.

No idea what event you’ve been going to if you think quality has been going down post 2020.

 

[Jerroddragon]

lol

Reviews don’t matter much, if USH makes money that’s all they care about fright fest can be better but it will take years and years before they will come close to making as much profits as HHN

We might care if things aren’t the best but as long as we or someone goes and they make money I highly doubt USH cares if the houses this year aren’t as loved

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Are people actually arguing that Knott's Scary Farm had its best year last year?

Being fair, very few people who attend the event now have attended all 50 years, it's probably more realistic to say the best year in the last 15-20 years, which although I've only been going since 2016, I could see as a reasonable statement. It had a pretty insane amount to offer, easily more than any other event has in the better part of a decade, with a pretty high quality to meet that quantity when staff scheduling wasnt throwing a wrench in guest experience.

 

[Rideguy70]

I've been going to KSF pretty regularly since the late 80s (not every year, admittedly)... and I had the most fun last year. So yeah, I think it was definitely one of their stronger years last year.

Disappointing to hear that so far, the mazes have gotten mixed reviews. It is still previews, so I always take it with a grain of salt. But I do agree that essentially none of these properties or concepts really held a lot of appeal for me in the first place. The thing I'm most looking forward to is the Crowz scarezone and Terror Tram, believe it or not.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

I do feel like theres a degree of bias in first impressions and crusty phone videos, as I feel like every single year theres some starting feelings of "oh god everythings bad this year" that pretty quickly alieviates after the first 2 weeks and we get a clearer view of genuine strengths and weaknesses, heck I'm pretty sure I remember even years like 2016 and 2019 getting really mixed feelings at preview, and the opposite for years like 2017 here and there.
Obviously if its bad its bad, and I've gone out of my way to block image and video embeds for the thread so I haven't actually seen any of it but I do get a lot of deja vu.

 

[DTH]

I do feel like theres a degree of bias in first impressions and crusty phone videos, as I feel like every single year theres some starting feelings of "oh god everythings bad this year" that pretty quickly alieviates after the first 2 weeks and we get a clearer view of genuine strengths and weaknesses, heck I'm pretty sure I remember even years like 2016 and 2019 getting really mixed feelings at preview, and the opposite for years like 2017 here and there.
Obviously if its bad its bad, and I've gone out of my way to block image and video embeds for the thread so I haven't actually seen any of it but I do get a lot of deja vu.

Good thing we can look back even at this very forum to check reviews. Just re-read the spec thread for 2016 about the Employee Preview and every single review was glowing. A lot were cautious to say it was the best year ever early simply because it was just a preview, but they were clearly very surprised, happy, and thrilled about the quality. By the second week or so, everyone was all in on the year.

Again, the event hasn't opened so the narrative isn't official on this year yet, but Previews definitely aren't super far off.

Also, I don't know what you mean by crusty phone videos, literally all the high quality 4K and 8K videos for the last few years that we mostly see with the highest view counts on YouTube were all recorded on the Preview night.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Good thing we can look back even at this very forum to check reviews. Just re-read the spec thread for 2016 about the Employee Preview and every single review was glowing. A lot were cautious to say it was the best year ever early simply because it was just a preview, but they were clearly very surprised, happy, and thrilled about the quality. By the second week or so, everyone was all in on the year.

Again, the event hasn't opened so the narrative isn't official on this year yet, but Previews definitely aren't super far off.

Also, I don't know what you mean by crusty phone videos, literally all the high quality 4K and 8K videos for the last few years that we mostly see with the highest view counts on YouTube were all recorded on the Preview night.

are the Horror Night Nightmares forums still archived somewhere? I didn't join here till around halfway through the run that year so that was more my stomping ground anyhow. Regardless, my statement was less on peoples opinions on the event as a whole is percieved in a permanent sense, and moreso about how people reacting in the moment to handfuls of tweet reactions from handfuls of individuals all with different tastes leads people to overreact to certain aspects, positive and negative, based on hype and limited available information since everyone wants to know how everything is as fast as possible.

By crusty phone videos I mainly mean the stuff we see come out on/right after preview night, not the stuff that was filmed on preview night and posted once media embargos lifted, the stuff scattered on twitter and youtube filmed mostly off employee phones that they technically aren't even really supposed to be filming with, those ones. Like I said I could be wrong about this year and people were allowed to bring in big ol' dslrs and stuff for preview night, like I said I wasn't looking at any videos lol.

 

[DTH]

Nah, not really media embargos or anything like that are enforced and stuff goes up night of. You can check previous years of some pretty big YouTubers, alot of their dates are either day of or day after EPN. And they definitely are bringing in their big ol DSLRs with rigs and/or GoPros. Even the newest iPhones (14 and 15) have AMAZING low light and with a steady hand can capture amazing videos, equal to many DSLRs and/or GoPros. The iPhone 16 comes out in a few weeks and we'll definitely see those videos pop up real soon capturing the event. I feel like we are mostly well past potatoes filming stuff -- I mean, plenty still are being filmed, but the most popular videos that pop up first are being filmed with some type of DSLR, GoPro or iPhone.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

KSF had its “best year” last year?

KSF has more or less the same year every year (by design) because the houses — outside of two or three exceptions — are literally exactly the same every year. And even then, the quality of those old houses drops exponentially because all the effort and budget goes to the new ones.

This is all sounding like the usual “HHN sucks” hot take people throw around to sound cool and different. I’ve been attending all the SoCal haunts — theme park and otherwise — for well over a decade and to act like HHN doesn’t sit at the tip top is just contrarianism, in my opinion.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

KSF had its “best year” last year?

KSF has more or less the same year every year (by design) because the houses — outside of two or three exceptions — are literally exactly the same every year. And even then, the quality of those old houses drops exponentially because all the effort and budget goes to the new ones.

This is all sounding like the usual “HHN sucks” hot take people throw around to sound cool and different. I’ve been attending all the SoCal haunts — theme park and otherwise — for well over a decade and to act like HHN doesn’t sit at the tip top is just contrarianism, in my opinion.

Saying Knotts had its personal best year last year doesn't equate to it being better and I don't think anybody is trying to say that. It just means that specific event had a really good year, I don't generally bother comparing HHN to Knotts at all unless one of them is dramatically worse than their own event's standard in any given year, they're very different events trying to do very different things.
It had more houses and entertainment options than we've gotten from previous recent years at Knotts and those new offerings and the existing offerings were a noticeably higher quality package as a whole than we've gotten in quite a while, it's no deeper than that.

 

[Freak]

Y’all are trippin’ if you think HHN has gone down hill the past couple of years. If anything last year was one of my all-time favorite years! Yeah, I said it.

That being said, I understand that EP is not “show ready” and not everything is working, but the fact that there’s not great buzz about what’s been seen so far is telling. I’m still gonna see for myself Sunday, but hopefully they do better next year if this year is really going to be “meh”.